Teachers, tax collectors, railway workers and other public servants went on strike Thursday in France to protest job losses and demand higher pay. Police said up to 23,000 people demonstrated in Paris -- the largest march -- while the Communist-backed CGT union put the number of demonstrators at 85,000. Unions representing public servants called for the strike in response to a government announcement that 15,000 jobs would be cut in the public sector in 2007. Strikers also protested the 0.8 percent pay raise received by public servants.
See "Teachers, Others Strike in France", Associated Press, The New York Times, February 8, 2007